amator.appAmateur football is played in more shapes than the one on television. The same evening can hold a futsal league in a sports hall, a 5-a-side game in a cage behind a shopping centre, a 7-a-side game on an Orlik pitch and an 11v11 friendly on grass. Each has its own pitch, ball, clock and restarts, and the rules you half-remember from one often do not apply to the next.
This wiki describes the formats one by one, in the same order every time: what the format is and where it is played, the pitch and goal, the ball, team size and substitutions, duration and clock, the rules that differ from 11v11, and how amateurs actually organise a game of it.
Official laws and amateur practice
Two of the formats have a rulebook. Futsal is governed by the FIFA Futsal Laws of the Game; 11v11 by the IFAB Laws of the Game. On those pages every number comes from the current edition, and the document is listed under the page's sources.
Everything in between — 5v5, 6v6, 7v7, 8v8 — has no single law. National federations publish recommendations (The FA's small-sided laws in England, PZPN's youth unification in Poland), venues have house rules, and leagues write their own. Those pages give ranges, say where the ranges come from, and mark conventions with a callout:
Amateur practice: the organiser decides. Agree it before kick-off, not after the first disputed goal.
The formats at a glance
The comparison table on this page is built from the same facts file as the format pages. Use it to see the differences in one view: players per side, pitch and goal size, ball, playing time, whether the clock stops, offside, what happens when the ball crosses the touchline, substitutions and accumulated fouls. Rows marked as amateur practice are typical ranges, not rules.
How to choose a format
Start from the people, not the format. Count how many players you can reliably gather on a weekday evening, then subtract the two who always cancel. Ten reliable players is a 5-a-side game with no subs, or a futsal game; fourteen is 7-a-side with subs; twenty-two is 11v11, but only if all of them turn up.
Then look at the pitch you can actually book. Sports halls are futsal-sized by nature. Cages and small artificial pitches suit 5v5 and 6v6. An Orlik-type pitch is built for 6v6 or 7v7. Half of a full-size pitch takes 8v8 comfortably. A full pitch with 7.32 m goals is 11v11 and rarely anything else.
Finally decide what the game is for. Futsal rewards technique, and a stopped clock keeps every minute honest, but it needs a timekeeper. Small-sided games on a running clock are easy to run with no referee at all. 11v11 is the full game, with offside and limited substitutions, and it needs the most organisation.
Whatever you pick, write the rules down before the first game: team size, duration, touchline restarts, slide tackles, what the goalkeeper may do. Most disputes in amateur football come from two players who learned different conventions, not from anyone cheating.